The Council is responsible for all cleaning operations within the Borough. This is a mammoth operation covering an area of 245 square miles of urban and rural Roads and verges.
The responsibilities and subsequent activities are varied and a lot of the work carried out is scheduled to be done on a regular basis. This includes the cleaning of estate roads, subways and shopping precincts.
Litter picking of verges and open spaces is also done as scheduled work. The service provided allows littered areas of the borough to be cleaned once a week.
In addition to scheduled cleansing the council responds to complaints from the public taken by our customer care staff by telephone (01256 844844). All complaints are entered on computer and forwarded electronically to the Wade Road depot as a works order which, when the complaint has been rectified, is updated on the computer for future reference.
The Street Care operation unit provides rapid response teams able to respond within one working day to a request or complaint that is related to street cleansing.
Flytipping causes a considerable amount of additional work. It is an illegal operation, which angers the public and spoils the countryside. Fortunately, details and locations of flytips are often reported to us, by the public and members of staff, and can be quickly dealt with, usually within one working day.
Last year, over 3500 requests/complaints were dealt with, over a thousand of which related to Flytips. Litter, glass, leaves and dog fouling accounted for most of the other requests.
Our belief is that all people in the Borough are entitled to live and work in a safe and clean environment. We are working hard to achieve this aim.